The Silver Bullet Against Viruses?

Everyone is looking for the silver bullet for the coronavirus.

They’re coming up short, and I don’t think that will change anytime soon.

But there’s a natural supplement that’s been shown effective against other viruses… including other forms of coronaviruses.

It hasn’t been tested on its own against this new, novel coronavirus —but I, for one, have plenty on hand just in case.

Some people are claiming that zinc could be the “silver bullet against the coronavirus.”

I wouldn’t go that far.

But zinc does have impressive activity against one of the most well-known types of coronaviruses—the common cold.

Zinc is best known for its ability to reduce the duration of the common cold when you take it as soon as you start having symptoms.

In one controlled trial, taking 13 mg of zinc acetate every 2-3 hours for as long as symptoms persisted practically cut the number of days with symptoms in HALF.

These individuals only had to deal with nasty symptoms like nasal congestion, nasal drainage, and sore throat for about four days instead of eight.

The people were taking about 80 mg of zinc per day. That’s well above the daily requirement, but it’s not harmful if done for a short period of time.

Another study showed practically identical results using lozenges that contained 13.3 mg of zinc gluconate.

Taking a lozenge every two hours for the duration of the cold reduced the number of days with symptoms from about eight to about four.

In fact, a Cochrane review of 18 randomized controlled trials came to the same conclusion: Zinc can shorten the duration of the common cold when taken within 24 hours of the start of symptoms.

These results make sense, since zinc has properties that inhibit the replication of a virus.

I know what you’re wondering… Does this mean it will be helpful against this specific coronavirus, SARS CoV2?

In short, we don’t know. More research is needed.

What we do know is that zinc lozenges have been proven to help block many types of viruses from replicating in your nose and throat.

I like the zinc lozenges from Life Extension (www.lifeextension.com), and I have them on hand just in case.